Report: Randy Shannon turns down Maryland

By
Steve Yanda

Former Miami coach Randy Shannon has turned down an offer to become Maryland's next defensive coordinator, according to a person with knowledge of the situation. The story first was reported by the Baltimore Sun.

Maryland coach Randy Edsall is looking to replace Don Brown, whose sudden departure left the Terrapins without a defensive coordinator Feb. 4, two days after Signing Day. Brown left Maryland to take the same position at Connecticut, a move made so that he could be closer to his family.

Heads are going to roll over this and Kevin Anderson might be the first person down the hill if we wasn't willing to pay a guy like Randy Shannon. This is an important hire and we completely blew it. Of course they'll probably keep it quiet on why they didn't hire him and probably put the blame on Shannon just like they did with Fridge.

Heads are going to roll over this and Kevin Anderson might be the first person down the hill if we wasn't willing to pay a guy like Randy Shannon. This is an important hire and we completely blew it. Of course they'll probably keep it quiet on why they didn't hire him and probably put the blame on Shannon just like they did with Fridge.

Posted by: DiehardTerp | February 15, 2011 11:18 AM | Report abuse

I'm sorry, you can't pay $1.5 million for a DC. If Miami wasn't going to pay the buyout if he took the Terps' DC job, then they just need to move on. I'm not an Anderson defender, but it's pretty clear there's nothing that he could do to get this deal done short of paying Shannon $1.5 million up front, which would have been a colossal mistake.

Hmmm...school fires the Head Coach after giving him a new contract within the past 12 months. There's a buyout (probably normal when someone is fired), but...if you get a lower paying, non-head coaching position, with another school (just happens to be another conference school which plays the school that just fired you) you lose the buyout...Something's not right with this picture. The guy you fired isn't allowed to work???? Don't think this is the fault of UMD or its administration.

This should not be a surprise. Kentucky, UCLA and Texas tried to hire Shannon before UMD did. Hell, I saw 5 "it's a done deal" for Texas stories. Obviously Shannon has some strong provisions with Miami preventing him from taking certain jobs. I just don't see blaming Anderson or Edsall for this one unless you expect them to ante up a million $$$ for a DC.

Ultimately, it's another terrible PR disaster by our athletic department. Why did we put it out there in the first place that we were pursuing Shannon and offered him the job and get everyone's hopes up? Just as he did with Leach, just as we did with initially saying "Fridge will return next year"? Our athletic department is being "led" by a complete and utter incompetent, a bumbling, stumbling joke of an athletic director. If you don't think Debbie Yow is sitting in her office right now laughing her *ss off at all of this, think again. Just another misstep in a seemingly endless series of ugly embarrassments by our affirmative action AD.

Agree with Terp Grad, to a point. The question here is legally, what was stated in Shannon's contract regarding future employment??? Did it clearly state he cant work in the ACC? anywhere? If it did, why was he even interviewing for the position? This is the fault of the athletic department if they knew, and Shannon if he withheld something he knew but was not forthright about. If the contract did not contain any clause about future employment, then legally Miami has no grounds to hold on paying him his buyout money for taking another job

It looks like it goes from bad to worse. The number of fumbled situations keep mounting at the Athletic Dept.. I've tried to keep an open mind about our new AD but if he was on the FB team and fumbled this much in his first few games he would be riding the bench now. The Town Hall meeting next week should be revealing if anyone will ask the tough questions of our new staff.

On top of all this we let the ACC screw us over with a really good opponent in our first game on National TV (10 other ACC schools have at least one (1) cupcake in the first game, most have two (2). If we get blown out the whole season will go down the drain. Then to have a bye week in the second week. I believe the ACC set us up for big time failure and Anderson went along with it. (Maybe there is more $$$ due to the national TV game). Incredible. I am losing my faith in the program as each week goes by. I am tempted to cancel my season tickets.

This is what happens when the AD is an affirmative action hire. Anyone remember Bob Wade?
Posted by: waterboard | February 15, 2011 8:41 PM

Wow, keen insight on your part. Just for the sake of argument, rolling with the possiblity that Kevin Anderson is near as bad as Bob Wade was... That's two bad black hires in what, 30 years? Yeah, thank goodness all the whiteys have turned out so great.

Congratulations, you beat Barno1 (barely, admittedly) for dumbest post of the night.

Affirmative action hire? how in the hell can you folks be so stupid. Faulting affirmative action for not hiring another black person. so the now the black guy is enforcing the quota?

dummmy, the issue is Shannon's old contract. there are probably clauses that essentially prevent him from working. if so, he loses $1.5 million owed by Miami. if MD has progressed to having $1.5M coordinators to make it to the Eagle Bank bowl, more power to them.

I'm neither agreeing nor disagreeing with it but people are saying Kevin Anderson was an affirmative action hire because his resume' as an athletic director lacks ANY substance. Actually his resume' in general lacks any substance. How does selling copiers make you a good AD???

He was the AD of West Point for five years and they did what...? It's not like this was a guy who took a sub .500 football team and made them bowl eligible for 5 straight years like Paul Johnson did at Navy.

So that makes people wonder, "well if he hasn't done anything significant why in the hell did he get hired as the AD of a 1st tier Division 1 program???"

I would have MUCH rather had an up and coming AD from a D1-AA school who was ready for his big break.

Instead we get a guy who can't speak publicly, who embarrassed our alumni football coach, choked on getting us into a respectable bowl game and has repeatedly asked Terps fans "not to be so darn mean" at sporting events.

Did anyone seriously think that he was coming here anyway? Going from the U to the turtles is a step down no matter how far the 'Canes program has fallen. Even if he did come here, if he had any success, he was out the door to a better job. Next candidate.

Let's get Larry Johnsons Sr. He should have been the 1st choice to begin with. He is a fantatsic coach and of course we all know he has been stealing top end Maryland recruits to PA for years. The guy wants a promotion and given the atmopshere and uncertainty at PSU right now he would jump at the chance.

How many mistakes will Anderson be allowed to make before he gets canned?

How can the school seriously think he is doing a good job...?

I'm not as mad about the Friedgen decision as much as I'm mad about how it was handled. It's obvious he has no clue about professionalism or common decency.

"Hi this is Kevin Anderson calling you with Xerox corporation. Sir the reason for my call is that my records indicate you're currently using ABC Copier company. There have been some dramatic improvements in the digital imaging industry that I would like to come out and discuss with you. What works better for you Tuesday at 10am or Thursday at 2pm?"

The question is why did the Terps go so far down the road with Shannon if he had a non-compete or payout language limiting his employment options? It must have been well known that he had restrictions - why did anyone think this opportunity would be allowed when others weren't? Bad management (again).

Why people are immediately jumping on the AD is beyond me. Yes, Shannon should have known about the clause and told MD before he interviewed. But it's also possible he did, and that UM decided to interview while it had its lawyers look over the contract, possibly to gain a jump on another possible employer of Shannon if they decided it was something that would not be enforceable or apply. These things are not always answerable in a few minutes. Also, these clauses are frequently ambiguous, so that two sides had different conclusions about whether it applied to him (for example, taking a different (lower) level position), and ultimately Shannon may have decided he just wasn't willing to take the risk.

Some of you people need to take a breath, step back and give Anderson a chance to do his job and see what happens.

Why people are immediately jumping on the AD is beyond me. Yes, Shannon should have known about the clause and told MD before he interviewed. But it's also possible he did, and that UM decided to interview while it had its lawyers look over the contract, possibly to gain a jump on another possible employer of Shannon if they decided it was something that would not be enforceable or apply. These things are not always answerable in a few minutes. Also, these clauses are frequently ambiguous, so that two sides had different conclusions about whether it applied to him (for example, taking a different (lower) level position), and ultimately Shannon may have decided he just wasn't willing to take the risk.

Some of you people need to take a breath, step back and give Anderson a chance to do his job and see what happens.

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